


More Than Hello

by ArgyleMN



Series: Bryce Lahela/Cassie Vanderfield - Canon Universe One Shots [7]
Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24601798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgyleMN/pseuds/ArgyleMN
Summary: After a year of drama, Bryce finds himself willing to share a few things with Cassie about his background.  Set near the end of Open Heart book 1.
Relationships: Bryce Lahela/Main Character (Open Heart)
Series: Bryce Lahela/Cassie Vanderfield - Canon Universe One Shots [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768597
Kudos: 9





	More Than Hello

“So if you use ‘aloha’ for both hello and goodbye, does it ever get weird or confusing?” Elijah asked, taking a swig of his beer. He had bought the last round of drinks. Landry, Sienna, and Cassie were all working, so it was just the three of them, and tonight’s topic of conversation was about differences between where they’d all grown up. Needless to say, it would _not_ have been Bryce’s first choice.

“How would it get confusing to anyone older than two?” asked Jackie. “It would be obvious what was going on to anyone with half a brain. I’m clearly not saying goodbye to someone if we’re just meeting up.”

Bryce smiled and shook his head. He got asked about this… a lot. Everyone seemed to think they were making some original, amazing joke. He always let them have their moment, but no one really understood. And quite frankly, it wasn’t worth explaining. Not only that “aloha” didn’t literally mean “hello” or “goodbye,” but also the way he learned about the real meaning of the word. Or rather, the people who taught him the real meaning.

So instead of providing an explanation to the two of them, he took another sip of his drink before changing the subject. “Elijah, your turn to tell us about Illinois customs. Why don’t you start with explaining why I should want _more_ tomatoes on my pizza.”

As Elijah started off on a rant about how deep dish was the only true pizza, Bryce shoved the mentions of Hawaii and his upbringing out of his mind. And as the weeks turned into months, Bryce forgot about that night at Donahue’s, that conversion becoming one of dozens of conversations between him and some combination of his favorite group of IM residents over the year. But tonight, it all came rushing back to him as Cassie sat on his couch, grabbing a pair of chopsticks and the container with the orange chicken as they prepared for their weekly tradition of delivery and making fun of episodes of _House_.

“I was surprised at what you said to me today in the workroom.”

“What, that I thanked you for that _interesting_ consult?”

She laughed, shaking her head, “Sorry about that. Dr. Olson apparently is a big practitioner of CYA medicine. I think I’ll be calling a _lot_ of consults while she’s my attending. It wasn’t that, though. You said ‘Aloha’ to me when you came into the team room.”

He had. Seeing her back at work, in her scrubs and teaching a med student how to time mark lab results in the computer, it had just slipped out. 

“Yeah, well I wanted to give you a… _different_ welcome back to work, but getting up to _that_ in the middle of your workroom seemed a touch unprofessional.”

Cassie raised her eyebrows as she gave him a little smirk before loading some of the orange chicken onto her plate. “Probably just slightly. I more meant that you don’t usually like to bring up anything related to… Hawaii.”

She wasn’t wrong. He avoided talking about home and the mess that was his relationship with his parents like the plague. The fact that Cassie had felt the need to pause before even mentioning the word “Hawaii” kind of said it all. But after everything they’d been through together this past year, it seemed silly to keep that side of him from her so aggressively. So he just shrugged.

“Yeah well, ‘aloha’ means more than just welcome back.”

“Really? I thought it was the same as saying hello.”

“Nah, it’s used as a greeting, but it doesn’t really mean hello,” he said with a shake of his head. “It means a bunch of different things.”

“Like what?”

“Compassion. Patience. Welcoming. Peace. Affection. I don’t know. It encompasses a lot.”

Cassie smiled at him as she grabbed the rice and dumped some onto her plate. “Well, thanks for the warm welcome, then. It _is_ really good to be back.”

Bryce took the rice from her, adding it to his own plate. Of course, he’d left out one key meaning of “aloha” - love. That just felt like too much at this point. But as he watched her eat dinner, yelling in frustration whenever something insanely inaccurate happened with House or his fellows who seemed to function more as lab and imaging technicians, he couldn’t help but think that maybe he would be ready to take that step pretty damn soon.


End file.
